


paths to happiness

by eggfish



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Meaningless Chatting, Second years, Slightly meta nerdiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 02:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14150220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggfish/pseuds/eggfish
Summary: It’s the start of a truly irritating friendship for Keito. Practically every time they meet he ends up wasting time blathering on about books, or manga or movies or politics or anything else under the sun. Aoba drifts from topic to topic like a fluffy unworried cloud. It’s almost a gentle respite from the rest of Keito’s life, the Student Council work and the everything else that leaves him drained and surly and suspicious.





	paths to happiness

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @clanleaderanjou on twitter's prompt 'Tsumugi helping Keito write his fanfiction in 1st year' except I misread it as saying second year and now I have no idea if this matches canon's timeline.. well, if not then it's an AU okay. Also I completely got distracted from the prompt and blame Tsumugi for everything since it's the first time I wrote him

By the time Keito is done with his share of the library chores for that day, mostly re-shelving, Aoba is maybe one-third of the way there. He happily potters from shelf to shelf with no regard for efficiency, picking up books headed for all over the library rather than grouping them by genre, taking time to chat with most students he runs into, even occasionally stopping to read the blurb of a book with a promising cover. When he gets close, Keito can hear him humming a song under his breath. Overall it’s frustrating to witness. Maybe a little endearing. But mostly frustrating.

Normally Keito would leave at this point, but he wants to check the rest of the unshelved books, so he can at least help the boy finish sooner. Or he can try - almost as soon as he starts to sort through the stacks on Aoba’s trolley Aoba himself hurries back over to stop it, waving his hands placatingly.

“No, no, Keito-kun, please don’t trouble yourself to help me,” he whispers. “I mean, please don’t take my work away. I enjoy shelving a lot.”

Keito frowns. “Enjoying or not, you’re wasting your time here,” he whispers back. “Finish work and you can go and do something useful for yourself.”

“But this  _ is _ for myself,” Aoba insists. 

He taps a finger against his face as if to draw Keito’s attention and then switches on that disarmingly gentle and charming smile of his, all golden eyes and faded curls. He tilts his head. “See, I’m happy.” Keito has no idea how to respond to this. Aoba smiles broader. “But come on now, Keito-kun. You really don’t need to do anything in return, if you’d like something. What do you want me for today?”

“I -” Keito snatches up a book defensively. ”Can’t I just help? It’s irritating to see how much extra work you’re doing. Regardless of whether I actually do, it’s rude to assume I have an ulterior motive. Are you listening to me, Aoba.”

“Hm? But everybody has an ulterior motive.” Aoba’s voice is so completely assured. He fiddles with one of the books, riffling the pages back and forth in a slow, regular rhythm, like a metronome; it’s soporific.

“You...” Keito shakes his head, trying not to get caught up in Aoba’s sleepy pace. “ _ Fine _ , if it gives you the satisfaction I’ll just tell you. There’s a book that’s missing from its shelf, even though it’s not recorded as lent out, so I’m looking for it. I was going to ask you about other places to search as well. You know this area better than me.”

“Oh, well, I do know some hidden spots, but… what book is it?”

“Hm. I don't remember. It’s the third in a series written by Hanazawa Haruki.”

“Ohhh. Keito-kun, you’ve gotten a little bit careless, I think. Did you even check whether we have it before going to the lending records…? ”

“I don’t have time to go searching on the trivial off-chance that we don’t have it. Why would the school order in only the first two books of a trilogy published years before the library opened?”

“Mm, but I’m a fan of that series, and I have a proper appreciation for the trivial, so I did some searching. It turns out the author decided to quit writing before they finished the last book. Sad, right? They got into real trouble for it too, since they’d signed a three-book deal with the publisher already.”

“That’s…”

“You just read the first two yourself and assumed a sequel, didn't you?” Tsumugi laughs. “In the end, your ulterior motive is simply that you’re a bookworm. That’s quite endearing, Keito-kun.” Something about the way he says that makes it seem faintly scandalous. Keito feels his face heating up, and tries to ignore it.

“How incorrigible. You’ve caught me. But there’s no need to put it like that; it’s not exactly a secret that I enjoy reading.”

“Fufu, but a series like  _ that  _ is way too romantic to fit your image _.“ _

Keito can’t help but make a sour face. “I don’t plan on having a particularly proper image at this point, in any case. Who cares if one or two people know I don’t stick to my own rules.”

“You’re an idol, though? But actually, I have some other recommendations if you liked that series...“

 

\--

 

It’s the start of a truly irritating friendship for Keito. Practically every time they meet he ends up wasting time blathering on about books, or manga or movies or politics or anything else under the sun. Aoba drifts from topic to topic like a fluffy unworried cloud. It’s almost a gentle respite from the rest of Keito’s life, the Student Council work and the everything else that leaves him drained and surly and suspicious.

Almost, except Aoba’s knack for saying the most absurdly incorrect things as if they’re truths of reality is downright worrying sometimes, and his knack for teasing is… well, Keito doesn’t want to think about it. Something about him is very reminiscent of Eichi, but he lacks Eichi’s selfishness, and Keito can only worry when he sees Aoba trailing Eichi like a lost puppy in between lessons. But interfering effectively with Aoba is starting to seem impossible, and interfering with Eichi isn’t an option. Keito can only hope.

The topic of the unfinished trilogy doesn’t come up again until a long time later. They’re talking about happy endings over tea, and Tsumugi absently asks, what about the ones left entirely to the reader’s imagination? 

“No way,” Keito decides immediately. “That’s just laziness from the author. It’s as if they haven’t finished the book at all.”

“Mm, I want to agree with you, but the story has to end somewhere, right? You can’t describe everything, in every detail, forever. So what counts as a good ending point?”

“Ugh… I don’t know. But you can’t just leave the characters to their own devices afterward. It should be set up so that they’ll inevitably continue on the right paths to happiness. If it’s a happy ending.”

“Oh, something like pre-established harmony…?”

Keito narrows his eyes. “Don’t use words you picked up from Eichi.”

Tsumugi smiles at that. “But I think it’s fine to stop once the message of the story has been communicated, honestly. Anything else beyond that is pointless. If I wanted to see a world devoid of greater meaning, I would just put the book down and go outside.”

“Hm. I’d argue against that.”

“No, no, I don’t want to! You get scary when you argue, Keito-kun, and despite that you never win anyway.”

“Hmph. I’d argue against that too. Regardless  _ you  _ don’t win either.”

“But, ending things too early is definitely worse than dragging on too late. The ‘Sun’s Name’ trilogy is the most obvious example, of course. That second book ends on quite the cliffhanger, doesn’t it…? Just as the hero has killed the king, there’s a reversal of fortune as he realises he has the cursed royal blood too. I always wondered about how that would have turned out.”

“That author was the most irresponsible type of all. It’s just unacceptable to leave the story in that state - you couldn’t even guess how it was all going to be resolved… Well. I know how it  _ should _ have ended, in any case.”

“Eh, seriously? You’ve thought about it that much?”

“W-Well, no, I just… there’s only one right way it could turn out, by my standards.”

Tsumugi claps his hands. “You have to tell me all about it. Wait… no, you should write a sequel!”

“Are you serious? You think I have spare energy to make a doujin novel right now?”

Tsumugi nods enthusiastically, as if that wasn't a rhetorical question. “You’ve done similar stuff before, haven’t you, Keito-kun, or should I say Mizu-”

“ _ Shh _ about that -” Keito glances over his shoulder instinctively. They’re alone in the library back room.

“Nobody’s listening to us, it’s okay… but wouldn’t it be amazing if you did do it? Come on, think of those poor characters who’re trapped halfway through their quest. You could, what was it you said…? Set them on the paths to happiness?”

“Oh no, don’t quote me in that voice. You make me sound like a fool.”

“You wouldn’t need to make a whole book. Just enough to resolve the important things.”

It is an incredibly tempting idea for Keito. He shakes his head. “I couldn’t do it justice. I haven’t done creative writing since primary school.”

“Between the two of us I’m sure we could manage something...” Aoba gives him a plaintive puppy-eyes look. Of course that won’t work on Keito. It won’t. It absolutely won’t -

Keito sighs deeply. “I can try and write a little postscript.” 

Aoba smiles. “That's the spirit! It can't be that hard, can it…?”

**Author's Note:**

> This was 90% dialogue to the point where it’s practically a script but you know about Tsumugi’s pointless chatting tendencies... Hanazawa Haruki is a fake person, btw, I hope so anyway  
> and as ever, I'm @star_goldfish on twitter ^^/


End file.
